Packaging begins with the Civilian Coffee logo emblazoned across the front of the bag. Atlas Stamp here in Portland made the stamp, with wooden handle and capturing the logo perfectly.

The back was originally hand-written flavor and origin information, but has evolved to printed labels. The labels use a similar black and white feel to the logo, utilizing black bars with knocked out text. So far they are simply sticky-backed mailing labels, making for a quick and easy labeling method. They will of course be refined and adjusted with each round of usage, potentially adding color or finding a brown paper label better match the Kraft bags. Finally, all bags are stamped with the roast date on the bottom.

A couple weeks ago, I made a return visit to Bend for the weekend.  Of course, this meant catching up on the coffee scene.  A stop by Back Porch Roasters found their Newport Avenue café open for business and running smoothly.  It is a modern feeling café, plenty of white walls, light woods, and clean lines.  You may remember them from my post last summer when Marrow Magazine also did a write-up about their cold brew bottles.

The new roaster known as 11 Roasters recently bought Thump, a café in old downtown Bend.  Sterling pulled a few delicious shots for me.  Their Ethiopia S/O spro tasted like strawberries and cream, delicious.  The espresso blend cut through the milk well in a macchiato without overpowering the milk, and their French press from the air pot had a nice body and enough sweetness that no one should need to reach for the cream or sugar.

A cupping at Lone Pine was conducted by owner and roaster Scott Witham.  A knowledgeable professional, his education comes from several years working the scene in Portland.  Deciding to launch his own roasting business he moved out to Bend, and has now been roasting for over five years.

Now when he visits Portland, his favorites are Heart, Sterling, and Coava.  Just like his favorite Portland heavy-weights, his passion for bringing out the best in every bean shows clearly.  He hosted a cupping of four coffees, including a Columbian, Guatemalan, Ethiopian, and Rwandan.  It was a wonderfully roasted set, with varying degrees of fruit across the board, but a gentle sweetness throughout.  Afterward, he pulled out the bottomless porta-filter and pulled a tight 18 gram shot over 30 seconds.  It was a blast of sweet fruit to finish the day’s tasting.

A stamp is on its way from Atlas here in Portland so the Civilian Coffee logo will appear on each bag along with the roast date.

The coffee itself is a Mexican Bourbon from the Chiapas region.  It was grown between 900 and 1350 meters, that’s 3,000 to 4,500 feet above sea level. , and processed using wet methods giving better quality control and a cleaner taste.  This coffee is organically grown, but more importantly (In my book anyway) is the fact that is fair trade through Cafe Femenino.  This means the farms are primarily run by women, who are being educated and trained by Cafe Femenino to help empower them and earn better prices through improved quality.  The money they earn is often put back into the community, whether that be education for children or new wells for drinking water.

Test batches on my home roaster so far have proved delicious, so I’m excited to share this coffee with everyone over the next month or two.

I’ve been roasting coffee for over two years now, and would like to share my set up with you.  It all centers around the Behmor 1600 electric drum roaster.  While the manufacturer says it is capable of up to a pound, I would recommend staying under a half-pound to avoid baking the coffee.  The pre-set roasting profiles range from full power; a variety of incrementing power percentages; one starts high, drops low, and increases near the end.  The built-in smoke suppression is a wonderful feature on colder days when you may not want a window open.  Possibly the best addition was the thermocouple I purchased separately along with an insulated probe.  Snaking it into the roasting chamber has actually allowed for temperature tracking near the exhaust vent.

Of course, a gram scale is important for any home barista or roaster.  Being able to track the weight loss from each batch has been a great help to track differences in coffees.  Tracking has been the other goal of my setup.  Every batch is tracked in 30 second increments on spreadsheets, broken down to origin countries and farm.  Noting the quality and flavors of each roast as well has been a huge help.  I also track the weight loss, times and temperatures of 1st and 2nd crack, and Behmor settings.  This allows me to pull up the previous successful roasts for an origin/varietal as a starting point when returning to an origin after several months.

Even without its own built in thermostat, and that you must use the pre-set roast profiles, the Behmor has been a pretty good roaster.  Over time, you learn the right volume to work with and a way to work with the profiles.  Many people fib to the roaster, saying they’re roasting a larger batch than they are.  If you do this, keep an eye on your roasts, and take the time to learn what you’re doing, and you’ll be fine.

Arriving early I passed the time sipping on a pour over of their El Salvador Kilimanjaro, a blend of Boubron and ESL28 varietals.  In total it has three varietals, using three processing methods.  The blend lead to a nice creamy milk-chocolate dryness, that when combined with the wild fruit notes hinted at raspberries.  A very nice morning cup.

Since my last visit a few things have changed at Stumptown.  They removed their pour-over stand in place of on-cup porceline pour-overs.  The water tower is no longer their only hot water source, as a large hotplate now stands beside the pour-over station, keeping all the pitchers at the perfect temperature while they stand.

The highlight of the cupping was the Guatemala Finca El Injerto La Cima.  This coffee was very well balanced, very flavorful while delicate enough to enjoy early in the morning.  It is from a famer where Stumptown has a very long standing relationship, and goes through extensive sorting.  The same group of farmers work with the crop from early in the year, through harvest, and processing, ensuring extensive dedication the whole way.   Being a wet processed coffee, it is sorted multiple times during processing, but then several more times on the drying patio.  Ensuring on ly the best make it to the roaster.

Free public cuppings are held at the Stumptown Annex every day at Noon and 2 p.m.  Just swing on by if you’d like to try a variety of their coffees.

Stumptown Annex

3352 SE Belmont St

Portland OR, 97214

The first few rounds went quickly as the competition warmed up.  Each step closer to victory deserved celebration.

Each match of a latte art competition is typically head-to-head, two baristas enter, one emerges.  The other goes down the drain.

By the final rounds, the crowd’s full attention fell to the front of the café.  A counter mounted camera displaying each carefully poured designed on the wall for all to see.  Cheers and jeers ringing out with each ruling by the judges.

To the victors go the spoils.  Cold brew kits, and cold hard cash.

Until next year.